Pastor of Jalandhar church arrested in Delhi after rape complaint

Chandigarh, July 19

The Punjab Police arrested a priest and self-styled healer from the Delhi international airport following a complaint from a woman in Zirakpur that he had raped her, said an official on Thursday.

Zirakpur station house officer (SHO) Pawan Kumar said the priest, Baljinder Singh, was nabbed from the Delhi airport as he was about to board a flight for London where he was scheduled to attend a healing event on July 21.

Singh is the pastor of a church in Punjab's Jalandhar district. He was reported to be popular among people as a healer.

The woman, a resident of Zirakpur town, adjoining Chandigarh, had complained to the police in May this year that Singh had sexually assaulted her and even recorded a video of the assault.

She alleged the accused used to threaten her that he would post the video on social media if she complained against him or did not agree to his demands.

"We had received a complaint of rape from the woman in May this year. The accused was on the run since then. We had got a look out notice issued against him. We nabbed him when he was leaving for England," the SHO said.

He said 3-4 other persons were also named in the FIR (first information report) registered in this matter.

The police have registered a case against Singh under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the IT Act.

These include rape (376), cheating (420), outraging modesty of woman (354), obscenity (294), causing hurt (323) and criminal intimidation (506) under IPC and Section 67 (transmitting sexually explicit content) of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

IANS